Chris Conetzkey: We got three social media experts, each of whom runs a local social media consulting business, on the phone and asked seven hot questions pertaining to their industry and its impact on the business world. Responses to questions six and seven are below.

Question 6 –

Conetzkey: How do you think businesses should approach the possibility of intertwining its social media efforts with advertising opportunities?

Glynn: I think what businesses need to understand is there are two different types of advertising. There is push marketing and pull marketing. And push marketing is your billboards and your radio, and what you are trying to do is push someone to do something. And pull marketing is where you are trying to engage somebody. And pull marketing, although a little bit more difficult to execute, which is what social media is, creates a better relationship because it is designed to create dialogue between you and the consumer. Because when you can engage the consumer in dialogue, they are far more likely to buy your products and services. So I think having a good mix of those traditional mediums and using social media and looking at it from an entirely advertising standpoint will be the difference maker in a business being successful with it and not being successful with it. I think so many companies are afraid to create a budget for social media because they go, “well, social media is free, we are spending money on advertising, so we are not going to spend any money on social media, and we are going to wing it.” We tell a business not to forget that people became a fan of their business because they liked their business. So that is part of what they need to put out is information about their business. If they get a new product, talk about it, but don’t try to cram it down people’s throats.

Wright: If you sort of bring ads into your Twitter feed, that is one issue that is pretty controversial. Those are called sponsored conversations. Some people don’t mind it; others are against it. If I were advising a business, I would tell them not to approach social media as a thing you are going to derive sales from. It is a little bit more indirect. It is similar to investing in market research, it is similar to investing in focus groups and similar to investing in training people on customer service. It is more of a long-term investment. There are companies like Dell Inc. that claim they did X, Y and Z on Twitter and they have made millions of dollars just through their Twitter specials. And they can point to that and say you can actually make money from these platforms. However, they have been in the space for so many years that I think you learn that over time.

Stineman: McDonald’s Corp. is one of those that is doing it effectively. There is a real mix in how they are engaging their fans. On Facebook they will have the local deals; they have ways you can connect with them locally; they have a deal of the day or feature deal of the week or month. I think those are smart uses of the social media tools. What is really happening with companies who are using this effectively is that they are doing it in a cohesive way with everything else they have going. It’s a plan that includes PR and marketing and advertising and social media. It is not social media off on its own doing something completely separate from the plan for the company.

Question 7 –

Conetzkey: What is the most common mistake you see businesses make when using social media?

Stineman: Dedication of insufficient resources. If the conversation isn’t being led with consistency then it is going to stall. Then it will end up looking like a page where there is either no interaction or there is a lack of consistent interaction. Or it can be a case where the only action on behalf of the business is almost machine-like fashion where it is just pushing out information. I also think leaping before you think. But that has been a problem for companies with PR and marketing; it’s not new, it’s just the same problem can occur for them in social media. Toyota is a great example of that. They decided to launch a video contest and they did so in a way that didn’t really have a system and perhaps didn’t think through it, left it too much to the public to decide and really didn’t put it out there in a way that really explained what it was, so (the video ad) ended up looking like it was an ad from Toyota, rather than an ad by a contest winner. I just think that thinking through all of the steps and making sure that any ramifications are thought through before you take that action.

Glynn: I think the biggest thing is they don’t look at it as an extension of their brand. And they have to remember that what they put out there on the Internet is permanent and leaves a permanent impression. So if you just go out there and wing it and take a stab at it, and upset the social community, it is going to do more damage to your brand and it is going to make it so much harder to get in later when you actually do have a strategy than if you don’t do anything at all. So you are better off having strategy and having money set aside for some social media because it does take time and talent to launch a successful social media campaign.

Wright: Lack of effort. Which isn’t really a mistake, but it’s more of getting into it just because they have heard about it or think it is cool, or think there is some automatic benefits. Yet (they don’t) allocate resources to it, whether that is staff, time or sometimes outside consulting or coaching or even money. There is a failure to invest any of that into the space and then they get a really low return and they kind of abandon it.

See their responses to questions 1-5:

1.) How are businesses using Google Buzz?

2.) Who will win, Google or Facebook?

3.)What will social media be in five years?

4.) What new tools should businesses be aware of?

5.) Which businesses do a good job utilizing social media?